FACULTY SENATE
Minutes of February 6, 2001 - (approved)
E-MAIL: ZBFACSEN@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU
The Senate met at 2:00 PM on February 6, 2001 in
the Center for Tomorrow to consider the following agenda:
-
Approval
of the minutes of November 7, 2000
-
Report of the Chair
-
Report of the President/Provost
-
What’s new is the School
of Law - Dean Nils Olsen
-
Second
reading of the Faculty Senate Computer Services Committee’s recommendation
on baseline IT support and computer access for faculty - Professor Lorna
Peterson, Chair
-
First
reading of the Faculty Senate Grading Committee’s recommendation on the
Fresh Start Policy- Professor William Baumer, Chair
-
Old/new business
Item
1: Approval of the minutes of November 7, 2000
The minutes of November 7, 2000 were approved.
Item 2: Report of the
Chair
The Chair’s written report was distributed
with the agenda. He invited the following updates:
-
the President’s Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Diversity will shortly
be distributing a questionnaire to faculty, staff and students asking about
the racial climate at UB; please complete and return your questionnaire
and urge others to do so; the data will be very helpful to the Committee
in completing its work (Dr. Durand)
-
ballots for Chair of the Faculty Senate have been distributed and are due
by February 23 with results available soon afterwards; ballots for
SUNY Senator will be distributed as soon as the Faculty Senate Office receives
a supply of envelopes and will have a return date of March 7 (Professor
Kramer)
-
February 9 is the Professional Staff Senate’s Wellness Day; some 250 people
have had blood drawn for pretesting; there will be numerous displays, booths,
activities and tastings (Dr. Coles)
Item 3:
Report of the President/Provost
Today being UB day in Albany, there
was no report of the President/Provost.
Item 4:
What’s new in the School of Law
Professor Nils Olsen, Dean of
the School of Law, gave an overview of the School.
-
The School has restructured its teaching schedule:
-
offers a 60 minute, rather than a 50 minute, instructional hour, reducing
the instructional period from 14 weeks to 12 weeks; within a 12 week period
classes are scheduled in four week blocks
-
1 credit requires 12 hours of student contact which may be scheduled within
a single four week block, within two four week blocks, etc., up to six
four week blocks
-
this flexibility allows short, intensive courses which are particularly
appropriate for teaching skill sets and has made it possible to bring in
outstanding visiting faculty; allows faculty to individualize how they
meet their teaching obligation
-
The School has revised its curriculum:
-
offers upper division subject area concentrations; students graduate with
a J.D. and a certificate of concentration
-
requires faculty to teach more required courses rather than primarily courses
that fit their interests and research
-
mixes critical and theory courses with practice courses
-
faculty like the flexibility in scheduling, students and prospective employers
like the practice component; the American Bar Association accreditation
group was very intrigued by UB’s mix of theory and practice
-
The School has a greater presence in the University than is typical for
a law school:
-
faculty has a strong interdisciplinary ground; there are 10 Ph.D.’s
and many other faculty have an M.A. in the liberal arts
-
the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, which runs out of the School
of Law, spends 2/3 of its budget outside the School and has over 100 affiliated
faculty
-
cross lists many courses; has dual degree programs with the School of Management,
the School of Social Work, is working with the Department of Geography
and is developing a program in public health
-
the Baldy Center usually has 30 Ph.D./J.D. students
-
The School is growing:
-
40 tenured and tenured track faculty; 60% are male, 40% female
-
31 faculty are tenured full professors
-
student demographics have improved as the School’s applicant pool has increased
-
currently there are 730 students up from a low of 680 several years ago
-
students are 50% male and 50% female
-
17% of this year’s class are out of state students; the School recruits
successfully in the North East market because of its relatively low tuition
-
20% of the class is minority, which percentage should increase to 25% within
the next several years; the School is one of the few North Eastern law
schools to recruit in the southern historically black colleges
-
The School has nurtured an independent development capacity:
-
conducts its own annual campaign, using alumni and students
-
has a tradition of alumni support
-
has allowed the School to increase its scholarship support from $30 K five
years ago to $300K today
-
has successfully raised funds for capital improvements such as the transformation
of the Moot Court Room, which was a large, high ceilinged and ineffective
teaching space, into five classrooms and a suite containing a Mission Style
oak paneled courtroom, a judge’s chamber and a jury deliberation room;
the suite will be used for actual court proceedings of the New York Supreme
Court, the Family Court, the New York Appellate Court, the U.S. Magistrate
Court and some alternate dispute resolution systems
-
The School has an active clinical program:
-
emphasizes complex transactional activities
-
had the first affordable housing clinic in the United States; over the
last ten years in partnership with the Diocese of Buffalo has done $70M
of affordable housing development and is the major engine for affordable
housing in Buffalo
-
has a clinic on domestic violence which works state wide and receives its
own line in the state budget; the clinic focuses on getting agencies involved
with domestic violence to work toward the same goal; for example, while
criminal justice agencies encourage the reporting of domestic abuse, social
agencies consider delayed reporting to be evidence of an unfit parent,
creating a serious dilemma for an abused spouse who delays reporting
-
works on University affairs, for example is exploring a possible housing
benefit program for UB employees that would target selected neighborhoods
in Buffalo and is helping the University develop a consistent approach
to dealing with students with disabilities and finding funding for necessary
accommodations
There were questions for Dean Olsen:
-
describe faculty’s research and creative activities (Professor Nickerson)
-
traditional legal scholarship appears in student edited law journals; because
of the interdisciplinary bent of many of the School’s faculty, the majority
of their publications appear in peer edited journals (Dean Olsen)
-
School is to be congratulated on its innovative schedule and curriculum;
difficult to accomplish without control of one’s own space, class scheduling
and calendar (Professor Fourtner)
-
harder but not impossible to work through central facilities for space;
scheduling and calendar issues more difficult; would be glad to work with
anyone who is interested in trying because the system offers great pedagogical
advantages, enhances professional development for faculty and the students
like it (Dean Olsen)
Item
5: Second reading of the Faculty Senate Computer Services Committee’s recommendation
on baseline IT support and computer access for faculty
The recommendation of the Computer
Services Committee for a baseline of IT support and computer access was
moved (seconded). Professor Peterson, Chair of the Committee, opened
discussion of the recommendation by noting that a minority of the Committee
questioned the need for a standard baseline of IT support for all full
time faculty. The minority believed that a faculty member should
only be provided with the support and access she would use.
There were comments from the floor:
-
have not been persuaded that the University is responsible for providing
faculty with computers; perhaps faculty should supply their own computers
(Professor Malone)
-
computers have been integrated into teaching; it would be analogous to
say that faculty should buy their own phones and desks; other institutions
that have integrated computers into teaching have first provided faculty
with computer access and support before asking students to have computers
(Professor Peterson)
-
University considers computers to be vital to its mission; traditionally
the University supplies faculty with vital supplies (Professor Schack)
The resolution passed unanimously.
Professor Peterson described other activities of
the Committee. Chief Information Officer Innus spoke to the Committee
about node funding, the Educational Technology Action Plan (ETAP), and
how faculty communicate to the nodes. On the issue of support for
multiple computer platforms, the CIO said that while philosophically he
understands the benefits, realistically the movement is to standardization.
The Committee has also looked at plans for a wireless campus, the implementation
of Blackboard and expectations for faculty availability once it is operational,
and the creation of an IT literacy plan for graduate students.
The Committee will be meeting with the Provost to
discuss IT assessment plans.
There were comments from the floor:
-
important that the Committee advocate for faculty interests with regard
to multiple platforms; there are serious academic reasons for having multiple
platforms and systems administration need to be strongly told that (Professor
Schack)
-
support outside the Committee for multiple platforms helps the Committee
speak with more authority (Professor Peterson)
-
are there plans for more technology equipped classrooms? (Professor Campbell)
-
Committee is very concerned not only about the number, but also the size
of e-tech classrooms; Vice Provost Pitman says that 4 new e-tech classrooms
will be added; Committee wrote to Professor Zambon of the Classroom Quality
Committee urging that there be a mix of large and small e-tech classrooms
and that low tech facilities also be made available at need (Professor
Peterson)
Item
6: First reading of the Faculty Senate Grading Committee’s recommendation
on the Fresh Start Policy
Professor Baumer, Chair of the Grading Committee,
explained that the Fresh Start Policy adopted four years ago conflicts
with other policies and needs revision. The Grading Committee feels
that a total replacement for the original policy is necessary rather than
just tinkering with the existing policy. The replacement policy provides
for a total write off of previous work at UB, allowing a returning student
to start de novo. Prior work remains on the student’s transcript
but is not used to satisfy any University requirement. A transfer
student, by contrast, may count courses successfully completed at another
institution and exclude unsuccessful courses.
A Fresh Start student like all other students may
test out of courses, including courses taken in her first attempt.
She may also seek a waiver of prerequisite courses that may be waived by
permission of the instructor.
There were questions from the floor:
-
may a student who drops out at the end of one Fall semester return under
the Fresh Start Policy for the next Fall semester? how are incomplete F’s
treated under the Policy? (Professor Fourtner)
-
the Policy requires a full 12 months absence from the University, so a
student who drops out at the end of one Fall semester could not return
until the Spring semester of the following year; incomplete F’s default
to F under the Fresh Start Policy, notwithstanding the usual 15 month period
allowed for completing the course, and are written off (Professor Baumer)
-
very logical procedure (Professor Gentile)
-
what compels a student to disclose having been a student at another institution
since not disclosing allows them to have a clean transcript? (Professor
Amsterdam)
-
academic integrity (Professor Baumer)
-
seems inconsistent to allow transfer students to bring courses from another
institution in which they did well but exclude courses in which they did
not do well while excluding all work for Fresh Start students (Professor
Segal)
-
it is inconsistent but cleaner; current Fresh Start Policy forces advisors
to doctor the student’s transcript (Professor Baumer)
-
beyond the 12 month absence from the University what evidence is required
to show that a student is ready for a fresh start? (Professor Faran)
-
admission to the program is at the discretion of a committee, 2/3 of whose
members must be approved by the FSEC; applicant may make three attempts
to be granted Fresh Start status and may be granted Fresh Start status
only once (Professor Baumer)
-
consider bringing over a transfer student’s entire set of grades from another
institution rather than picking and choosing among her grades (Professor
Segal)
-
why is honorable military service evidence of being ready for a fresh start
since there is no academic component to military service? (Professor Steiner)
-
it is evidence that the student has successfully performed in a disciplined
setting; often students fail because of a lack of self-discipline not a
lack of innate intelligence (Professor Baumer)
-
although I served in the Peace Corps, not the military, I am always happy
for students with military experience because they have self-discipline
(Professor Meacham)
Item
7: Report on the 127th Plenary Meeting of the SUNY Senate
Professor Adams-Volpe reported on the January
25-27 meeting of the SUNY Senate in New Paltz. She highligh
